While they are rightly spending a lot of time covering the coronavirus crisis, the media were still political entities. ABC proved that fact during Sunday’s This Week when three of their journalists (chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, chief White House correspondent Jon Karl, and senior congressional correspondent Mary Bruce) hyped how President Trump’s campaign messaging took a massive hit and his poll numbers were sinking. One even floated the idea that the Senate majority could be in play.
Stephanopoulos led the trio in their hopeful 2020 banter. “And Jon Karl, it does seem that the President and his team are only beginning to come to grips with what this does mean for his re-election prospects. They're dealing now with should the press briefings continue. That's one question, but basically the entire rationale he had two months ago has just been decimated by this coronavirus,” he gawked.
Karl thought Stephanopoulos was “absolutely” correct because the polling was against the President. “He [Trump] was running on the economy and now what he's trying out is we've built the greatest economy in history, now we can build it again,” he explained. “But George, they are looking at the polling, and obviously it's early to be talking about general election polling, but it's pretty devastating.”
It’s strange when journalists lean so heavily on poll results when all the 2016 polls claimed Trump was going to lose right up until the end.
In an effort to pile on the negative election forecast for the President and Republicans, Stephanopoulos, citing no evidence, opined about how Trump was threatening down-ballot candidates and putting the Senate in play. “You started to see both Republicans and Democrats now on Capitol Hill talk about the possibility that the Senate, that the Republican Senate majority, may actually be something that can be challenged,” he teed up Bruce.
“Yeah. There's certainly anxiety amongst Republicans that the President and the way that he is handling this is doing himself more harm than good, and that that could trickle down and potentially put Republican candidates at a huge risk,” Bruce, a staunchly anti-Republican reporter, proclaimed.
Citing reports of a memo circulating among congressional Republicans, Bruce scoffed at the idea of the GOP being told to blame China for the emergence of the Chinese Coronavirus:
We have seen, now, reports of this memo going out to Republican candidates essentially encouraging them not to discuss the President's response to the virus. They are being told instead not to defend the President's response but essentially to pivot, to talk instead about China, to blame China, it say China tried to cover this up, that that has hindered the President's ability to respond.
And as she wrapped up her comments, Bruce boasted about how she was “hearing a lot of optimism from Democrats” she talks too. “You are certainly seeing a shift in some key states and a surge of cash going to a lot of Democrats in key states like Arizona, North Carolina, Maine, Colorado,” she added with noticeable excitement.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s This Week
April 26, 2020
9:52:35 a.m. Eastern(…)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And Jon Karl, it does seem that the President and his team are only beginning to come to grips with what this does mean for his re-election prospects. They're dealing now with should the press briefings continue. That's one question, but basically the entire rationale he had two months ago has just been decimated by this coronavirus.
JON KARL: Absolutely. He was running on the economy and now what he's trying out is we've built the greatest economy in history, now we can build it again.
But George, they are looking at the polling and obviously it's early to be talking about general election polling, but it's pretty devastating. Fox News had a new polling out that showed the President down significantly in Pennsylvania and even down in Florida. Other polling has shown him down in all those other key battleground states that he won last time around.
He watches that more closely than anybody and they're looking -- you saw some of the frustration come out earlier this week when he talked about how the other guy, meaning Joe Biden, the President said is in his basement not facing any questions. I think there's real frustration and real worry on the part of the Trump team about this campaign.
[Crosstalk]
STEPHANOPOULOS: For the first time over the last few weeks you've seen -- hold on one second, Patrick. You started to see both Republicans and Democrats now on Capitol Hill talk about the possibility that the Senate, that the Republican Senate majority, may actually be something that can be challenged.
MARY BRUCE: Yeah. There's certainly anxiety amongst Republicans that the President and the way that he is handling this is doing himself more harm than good, and that that could trickle down and potentially put Republican candidates at a huge risk.
Look, I've talked to Republicans who fear that the two are intrinsically linked. That, if you are a candidate who ties himself closely to the President, that could be in some danger here. And the party seems to be acutely aware of that.
We have seen, now, reports of this memo going out to Republican candidates essentially encouraging them not to discuss the President's response to the virus. They are being told instead not to defend the President's response but essentially to pivot, to talk instead about China, to blame China, it say China tried to cover this up, that that has hindered the President's ability to respond.
And you are hearing a lot of optimism from Democrats that I've talked with. You are certainly seeing a shift in some key states and a surge of cash going to a lot of Democrats in key states like Arizona, North Carolina, Maine, Colorado. So, Democrats are feeling optimistic but, George, so much of course depends on the state of the economy and the state of the recovery come November.
(…)
